General to head Joint Chiefs

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will tap Gen. Mark Milley as his next top military adviser, choosing a battle-hardened commander who has served as chief of the Army for the past three years, U.S. officials said Friday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Milley would succeed Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dunford, a former commander of coalition troops in Afghanistan, is expected to serve out his term as Joint Chiefs chairman, which ends Oct. 1.

Trump is expected to announce his decision Saturday at the annual Armynavy football game in Philadelphia. Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert is his pick to replace Nikki Haley as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Trump said Nauert is “very talented, very smart, very quick.” He said he thought she would be “respected by all.”

Trump is downgrading the ambassador’s position to a sub-cabinet-level post.

Nauert thanked Trump and said she was humbled at being chosen.

“If confirmed, I look forward to continuing the outstanding job Ambassador Haley has done representing your administration and the American people,” Nauert said.

All this came the same day that Trump’s re-election campaign announced that two veterans of the president’s 2016 campaign, White House political director Bill Stepien and Justin Clark, the director of the office of public liaison, were leaving the administration to work on Trump’s re-election campaign.